Guide/Power Circuits

Definitions
Power is the rate at which energy is generated or consumed and hence is measured in units (e.g. Watts) that represent energy per unit time. The amount of energy generated or consumed over a given period of time is equal to the average power times the duration.

A Watt-second is a unit of energy, equal to one Joule:
 * 1 Watt-second (W*s or Ws) = 1 Joule (J)
 * 1 Watt (W) = 1 Joule per second (J/s)

Generators
The Manual Generator generates 400W no matter who is running on it or what their Athletics skill is. But it does train the dupe's Athletics skill. If no batteries are connected to the Manual Generator, dupes will just keep running on it until they need something. This assumes other machines are connected to the circuit.

Consumers
Machines consume Power. A Ceiling Lamp consumes 10W, or 10 Joules per second in the game (your common household light bulb however, is 40 to 60 W. A household LED light bulb uses 4 to 13 W)

Batteries
Batteries consume Power, but do not count in the wattage limit of the wire, even though they are listed as -200W. They store Joules.

Batteries consume only excess Wattage: If you're powering 40 Ceiling Lamps off your Manual Generator, the battery may appear to spark, but it won't be charging.

Tiny Batteries generate the same amount of heat as large batteries while active.

Batteries have no apparent limit to their charge rate or their discharge rate.

Batteries lose charge over time.

As of the cosmic upgrade, the length of wire does not matter (unlike real world power lines that lose power over long distances). So if you have the metal to spare, it can't hurt to set up large battery banks far away from the base.

Circuits
Wires in this game are not exactly like pipes. A circuit is all the wires connected to each other. If even a single wire is "low-wattage" then the whole circuit is low-wattage, meaning you will "overload" the circuit if your machines try to consume over 1000W total at any given moment. When you look at the Power Grid Overlay, White indicates a healthy circuit, yellow indicates the power draw is approaching/hitting the max, red indicates the circuit is overloaded, and purple indicates the circuit is inactive.

Heavi-Watt Wire
Heavi-Watt Wire circuits top out at 20kW worth of machine draw. It comes with the disadvantages of causing very negative decor effect, and they can't pass through walls or doors. But you can use Heavi-Watt Joint Plate to jump over a wall tile.

You cannot connect Heavi-Watt Wire directly to standard Electrical Wire because as soon as the total consumption on that grid rises above 1kW it will damage the Electrical Wire tiles. Instead use a Power Transformer here, which will limit power to a maximum of 1kW.

Switches
To interrupt the power flow through a wire build a Switch on top of it. When switched "Off", the wire under the switch is disconnected. A switch does not turn off an entire circuit. Place a switch on a wire between power generators/batteries and the machines you wish to turn off. Multiple switches can be used on a circuit at different branches. Since a switch turned off essentially "removes" that wire from the circuit, this alters the circuit's properties. Turn off a switch and you have essentially split a single circuit into two. A great use for a switch is to set up an emergency battery bank. Charge the bank to full, then turn the switch off between it and the circuit. Now you have backup power when the coal runs out or whatever the case may be. Switches are also handy for turning off Pumps in tanks and dangerous areas.

Efficiency
Not using smart batteries is the number 1 cause of electricity problems in your colony. Without a few connected to your generators, you will be wasting huge amounts of power, resulting in a shortage of fuel, a surplus of heat, and, in the case of the coal, wood, natural gas, and petroleum generators, a huge amount of co2.

However, there is an easy solution to this issue. Smart batteries will use automation to activate your generators when the batteries are empty, and turn off the generators when the batteries are full, therefore saving huge amounts of electricity from being wasted.

To set up a smart battery, just connect it to the generator like you would a regular battery, and run an automation wire from the output port on the smart battery to the input port on the generator. You can still have regular batteries on the same circuit, because all batteries on a circuit will charge and discharge at the same rate.

Lastly, select the smart battery and set the Logic Activation Parameters to 99 (high threshold) and 5 (low threshold). Setting it up this way prevents frequent switching between on and off.

Now, your smart battery is set up and you'll be saving a significant amount of power.